Jallikattu and Village sense.

30 January 2016 ·

I get told that I romanticize villages.  I know more than most would what the poverty means when mothers helplessly watch their malnourished children ache. I know children after a pointless schooling face unemployment, and then ending up in the drink shop. I know what the girls who marry them will face. I do not romanticize.

Yet, I stand by the understanding, after 20 years, that their ethics are stronger, their generosity vaster, and their rootednessness deeper than we can even understand. I, for one, would not be able to give away to a begger from my last quarter sack of rice. They all do. They call it Dharmam. And they tell me stories from the Mahabharata to validate their giving. How Kunti sent Bhima as the sacrifice to the Rakshasa when the family the Pandavas were living in had to contribute a member - that the village name was Ekachakrapalle I learnt from their stories only.

And yes, when they have traditional practices, I have learnt to try to understand them respectfully, before rejecting them as 'superstition'. I think their sense and sensibility is higher than that of the urban population. 

I also support Jallikattu.  The people are well equipped to handle their cultures and their choices.



 
Aparna Krishnan The jallikattu debate has thrown up some of the most detailed analyses and arguments in recent times. And still I see the same old objectors, object on the same old lines, usually ending the argument with an unarguable fact like 'She will defend tradition' ... begging to restart from zero position.

முரளி கே Now don't tell me that people in cities are not generous or mean after the Chennai disaster.
And I have a question, do you support a tradition like sati?

Aparna Krishnan No. For the last time, I do not 'blindly support tradition'. But I know the sense of village people, and I try to look deep and slowly and understand before rejecting. I do not consider my intelligence of a higher order than their, nor my sensitivity.

முரளி கே I am not commenting on anyone's intelligence at all. My point is we don't have a right to torture other animals. period.

Aparna Krishnan Please go with Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula. He has issued an open invitation to all to join him to the villages and talk to the local people and come to a ground understanding. Beyong a point one needs to get off the laptop to the field and understand.

Aparna Krishnan Or go with Sridhar Lakshmanan

முரளி கே Sure, I will when I get a chance.

Aparna Krishnan And after that we will debate this issue

முரளி கே Is it your case that animals are not tortured?

Aparna Krishnan And after that we will debate this issue

Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula
1) who has the domain knowledge understanding of livestock to decide behavioral characteristic or torture? Certainly not animal welfare activists.
2) The whole of Tamilnadu came to Chennai's help, but how many of the people who talk about chennai spirit etc have done anything about farmer suicides?